March 8, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. –
Two days after setting an NCAA Division I record for the most saves in a game, Cal Petersen matched Notre Dame’s freshman record by recording his fourth shutout of the season as the Irish hockey team blew past Massachusetts, 7-0, on Sunday night at the Compton Family Ice Arena. The Irish rallied back from Friday’s five overtime loss, the longest game in college hockey history at 151:42, to win the best-of-three Hockey East first round playoff series, 2-1.
With the win, Notre Dame (17-17-5) advanced to a best-of-three quarterfinal series March 13-15 at UMass Lowell in a rematch of last year’s Hockey East semifinal won by the River Hawks. The Minutemen (11-23-2) saw their season end. The 7-0 final score ties for Notre Dame’s most lopsided shutout win since beating Villanova, 14-0, on Feb. 12, 1988.
It marked the 10th time that the Irish have ever played in a decisive third game of a postseason series. Notre Dame is now 8-2 all-time in those situations, winning each of its last eight.
Petersen made 23 saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season, matching the school’s freshman record set by David Brown in 2003-04. For the weekend, Petersen saved 132 of the 139 shots that he faced for a .950 save percentage. Despite the cumulative fatigue of playing 261:17 of hockey over three days, Petersen posted a 1.61 goals against average this weekend.
Sensing that his team was the better conditioned on the heels of its late push in Saturday night’s 5-3 win over UMass, Irish head coach Jeff Jackson implored the Irish to get out to a fast start. While it took until the very end of the starters’ time on the ice, Notre Dame did get a goal on the game’s very first shift. As the teams changed lines, Thomas DiPauli threw the puck on net from the neutral zone as opposed to dumping it into the corner. The puck eluded Steve Mastalerz in the UMass net and put the Irish on top 1-0 just 48 seconds into the game.
DiPauli scored a similar goal 6:42 into the second period to put Notre Dame up 2-0, tallying on a long shot from above the face off circle to Mastalerz’s right while the team changed lines.
The tide turned permanently midway through the second period when Mastalerz was injured on a hard goal-mouth collision. Backup Henry Dill allowed goals on each of the first two shots he faced as Notre Dame extended its lead to 4-0 with goals just 14 seconds apart. Steven Fogarty scored the first goal, unassisted, off of a UMass turnover at 11:04. Connor Hurley won the ensuing faceoff back to Justin Wade. Wade gave the puck back to Hurley who danced through the Minuteman defense for his fourth goal of the year.
Notre Dame got another quick scoring burst before the second period ended, scoring twice in 21 seconds, to go up 6-0. Luke Ripley scored while awaiting a delayed penalty call from Vince Hinostroza and Mario Lucia at 18:47. On a power play 21 seconds later, defenseman Robbie Russo scored his 13th goal of the year, the most nationally for a defenseman from Jordan Gross and Hinostroza – the sophomore’s 32nd assist of the year.
The five goals in the second period are the most for the Irish in one stanza of play since scoring five in the third period of a 7-5 win at UMass on Dec. 5.
Austin Wuthrich got a goal with 25.7 seconds remaining in the contest to account for the 7-0 final.